It is often necessary, both for the reason of safety and for testing purposes, to recover a projectile in an intact form. Various methods and devices have been developed to accomplish this result. Most are rather complex, costly, and difficult to utilize. Additionally, some soft recovery techniques are suitable for laboratory use only.
Some methods of soft recovery for projectiles involve directing the projectile down a closed tubular member while developing high gaseous pressure in front of the moving projectile. The pressure decelerates the projectile whereby it may be recovered in an intact form. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,678,745; 3,940,981 and 4,002,064 are examples of such a soft recovery technique. While such a method is effective, the prior art techniques of performing such a method generally required sophisticated and expensive equipment, and were generally not well suited to the recovery of standard projectiles fired from ordinary weapons.
Another soft recovery technique known in the art involves firing a projectile along a set of rails which are partially submerged in water. A specially configured nose attached to the projectile scoops up the water, thereby providing deceleration forces. This method is also only suited for laboratory use due to the fact that a controlled environment and specially adapted equipment must be provided in order to decelerate the projectile. Additionally, if the projectile being tested has a rifling band attached thereto, means must be provided for stripping this band from the projectile so that the projectile may be properly accommodated by the rails.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,314,286 discloses a projectile recovery device which is suitable for field use. The device of the patent comprises a ring-like attachment to be fitted to the end of a gun barrel. The attachment is so configured as to catch the rifling band of the projectile thereby becoming attached to the projectile in its flight. A cable and balloon or other drag-inducing object are secured to the ring-like fitting to provide deceleration forces for the projectile. Use of this device is very cumbersome as it is necessary to attach a very long drag line and balloon to the projectile recovery device.
It is therefore an object of this invention to overcome the above noted drawbacks in the prior art techniques and devices.
It is an object of this invention to provide a projectile soft recovery apparatus suitable for use in the field and in the laboratory.
It is still another object to provide a soft recovery system which is inexpensive, requiring no complex equipment or devices, and requiring no power input for the operation of the system.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a soft recovery system which is well suited for use with standard shells and projectiles, and which requires no modification to existing guns and artillery.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a soft recovery system which imparts no damage to the projectile or the fuse attached thereto.